


In Love With a Criminal

by mirasaurus



Category: Avengers, Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Marvel Avengers Movies Universe
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-11
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-16 02:09:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirasaurus/pseuds/mirasaurus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years after the events of the movie, Loki has been released from imprisonment and returned to Midgard to see the Avengers, seemingly with benign intentions. Has the God of Lies learned to tell the truth, or is he hatching a sinister plan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Could Have Called

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! So glad to finally have an A03 account! This is already posted up to ch. 11 (as of writing this) on FF.net, so I'll be posting a chapter a week until it's caught up. After that, I'm gonna shoot for keeping that schedule, but no promises. I'm remarkably lazy. This fic uses a mixture of Movieverse, comicverse, and Norse mythology canon. Tell me what you think, darlings!

It had been 3 years since the Avengers had heard a peep out of Loki since when he tried to use the Chitauri to enslave Earth. For the first few months, the team had been scattered the farthest corners of the globe they could manage. However, since their disposal of the God of Mischief, a new villain had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, calling himself Doctor Doom. After his first couple of attacks on New York City had gone unchecked for hours until the rest of the team arrived. Now they'd learned their lesson – by command of Fury - and the whole team was currently living together in Stark Tower.

In that time, Thor's people had used the Tesseract to repair the Rainbow Bridge. Thor used it frequently to aid his friends in defending the city, or even to just check in on the Avengers and Jane. Lately, the God of Thunder had been spending even more time on Earth than usual. No one was complaining about the amiable god's presence, but it still made them wonder what could be keeping him from his home.

At the moment the team was in the rec-room Tony had setup, winding down from an exhausting day of fighting off the latest wave of Doombots. Steve and Thor were playing foosball against Bruce and Clint, Natasha was sitting on one of the large black leather couches with her guns laid out on the coffee table to be cleaned, and Stark was sitting across from her on the other couch with the left arm of his suit still on and the armoured plates removed, trying to repair some damage the circuitry had sustained during the fight. Every now and then Natasha would look up and the group huddled around the foosball table when their banter got particularly raucous and chuckled to herself, finding the sight of four large, muscular men huddled around a children's game hilarious. A particularly loud shout came from the four heroes, causing even Stark to look up from his work. Thor was standing there with one of the game's handles clutched in his massive grip, the other three laughing merrily at him.

"I am sorry, Tony. I seem to have gotten carried away with your little spinning man game…" Thor said, looking genuinely distraught.

"Don't worry about it, Point Break. I don't expect anything in this place to last very long with you, Cap, and Bruce around," Stark assured him.

"Sir, need I remind you of the… incident… you had in the lab last week?" JARVIS reminded him.

'One day I'm gonna figure out what makes him so snappy,' Tony thought to himself. "Well, I guess I have done my fair share of breaking stuff, too," Tony laughed, pointing palm at the already broken foosball table and blasting it to pieces. "Oh look, I fixed it."

Natasha rolled her eyes at her team mates, trying to hide a smile. Even though the assassin had no desire to participate in it, she still found their antics very entertaining to watch.

"Sir, Director Fury on the line," JARVIS interrupted, "It sounds urgent."

"He does realize we just got back from a mission, right?"

"Yes I do. But nobody ever said that planet Earth's last line of defense wasn't gonna have to work a little overtime every now and then," Fury shouted at Stark over JARVIS's PA system.

"What's the situation, sir?" Natasha asked, opting to step in before it became a shouting match.

"We're not sure. All we know is someone's blowing up central park. Get your super asses down there now and stop it!"

"Is it Doctor Doom again?"

"We haven't had any Doombots reported in the area, but that doesn't mean that he's just using something we've never seen before. Now get over there!" Fury hung up, and the Avengers sprang into action.

Natasha threw her disassembled guns back together in seconds and ran up to the roof where Tony had installed a landing pad for their hovering jet, with Clint, Bruce, and Steve on her heels. The rest of the mark VII suit that had saved him when Loki tossed him out a window 3 years ago flew onto Tony, almost running into Mjolnir as it flew to Thor's outstretched hand. The god of thunder waited while the suit assembled itself, and they launched out of the building together.

Since Bruce preferred not to go Hulk as much as he could, he had been taught how to pilot the jet. When Ironman and Thor arrived, he already had it circling over the park, trying to locate the source of the random explosions that were happening all over the park. Thor landed in the opened rear bay of the jet while Tony hovered just outside it.

"Call it, Cap," the metallic voice of the Ironman's external speakers droned.

"We need to locate who or whatever's doing this. Natsha, Clint, stay in the jet for now and circle, see if you can get a visual. Thor, you're with me on the ground. Tony, make sure there aren't any civilians left inside the park," Steve ordered.

Simply nodding their agreement, the team shot off to achieve their respective tasks. Thor grabbed Steve and swung his hammer, landing them in a clearly caused by one of the blasts as Tony shot off to fly low through the trees.

"Jarvis, do a scan for any people still in the area, as well as any mysterious energy signatures coming from within the park," Tony ordered his digital butler.

"Already done, sir. There's one directly east of our current location."

"Which one? A civilian or a threat?"

"Both, sir."

"Fantastic," Tony sighed as he swung in that direction.

What he found came as a surprise. There, sitting on a park bench facing a pond was Loki. In his left hand was a rope leading to a young girl he had tied up as a hostage, and in his right was a small ball of fiery green magic, which flashed brighter every time one of the explosions went off.

"Let her go, Reindeer Games," Tony warned, pointing his palms at the god's head.

Loki simply casually turned his head to look at the Avenger, a small though menacing grin crossing his face.

"What's the matter, man of iron? All I wanted was to get your attention. I've made sure the explosions didn't actually injure anyone. Pity."

"You know, you could have just called," Tony said. He was intrigued now, but he wasn't about to let his guard down just to satisfy his curiosity.

"Oh, where's the fun in that?"

"Let the girl go, stop blowing stuff up, and we can talk."

"Oh fine, if you insist," Loki said with a roll of his eyes. He waved his right hand and the green flame died, and he clicked his fingers and the ropes unraveled from around his hostage, who immediately ran off. "Now I would appreciate it if you didn't try to blow my head off with your little toy, since I've been ever so compliant."

Stark lowered his hands and opened up the suit's helmet, ignoring JARVIS's protests. However, before he could being to ask what the god of mischief wanted, Mjolnir came flying out of nowhere, hitting him directly in the chest. The force of the impact shattered the bench and set him flying, finally coming to rest several yards away, the hammer sitting on his chest.

"Good to see you too, brother." Loki wheezed, the last word coming out far more sarcastic than the rest.

"Why do you attack Midgard?" Thor bellowed as he and Steve came running up moments later.

"Straight to the point, I see. As I was telling your rather flashy friend, I merely wanted to get your attention. You've been avoiding me."

"Is that why you haven't been returning to Asgard?" Steve asked.

"Of course it is. He can't stand the sight of his little brother after knowing what tortures he's allowed our father to put me through. Again." Every word Loki spoke that involved any kind of family ties, he spat like the words were venom in his mouth.

After a moment's hesitation, Thor sighed and admitted that Loki spoke the truth, his head hung low in shame and his blond mane covering his face.

"That still does explain why you're here," Tony pointed out, standing over the god and laughing to himself as he struggled to remove the hammer from his chest, even though he knew it was impossible.

"In case it hasn't occurred to you, man of iron, I don't exactly get along with Asgardians. And as much as Thor's brutish stupidity grates on my nerves, his presence has a way of keeping them from making my life too miserable. A benefit that has been sorely lacked since I was released from my prison a few weeks ago."

"I am sorry, brother. Forgive me."

"What are you apologizing for? He's the won that kills a couple thousand people, filled my city with dead aliens, and tried to take over the planet. Not to mention kill you," Stark said, which earned him a glare that would have made anyone else want to curl up and hide from the god lying immobile on the ground. Tony merely stuck his tongue out at him, earning him a look of surprise and even slight confusion from Loki.

"What do you want to do with him, Thor?" Steve asked.

"I suppose it would be cruel to banish him back to Asgard. Despite his three years of imprisonment, there are still many there who want his head on a pike."

"Really? Gee I can't see why. He's such a nice guy," Tony mocked, angering Loki enough for him to hit in the chest with a blast of his green magic. Staggering slightly, Tony merely returned the favor with an energy blast from the palms of his suit. "A real gem."

"I suppose we'll have to lock him up somewhere until we figure out what to do with him," Steve sighed, looking pointedly at Tony.

"Aww, come on? You want him in my tower? The tower I just finished fixing after the last time he broke it?"

"We don't have anywhere else. I'm sure Thor doesn't want Fury getting ahold of him."

"Speaking of which, what are we going to tell him?" Tony asked.

"I suppose we could say it was just one more Doombot that we'd missed from earlier today, causing as much havoc as it could."

"Oh yea, like he'll believe that."

"Steve is right, Son of Howard. I will not allow Fury to experiment on my brother," Thor said, with enough conviction in his voice for the other two Avengers to know that the discussion was over.

"Fine. I'll radio Bruce to swing the jet around to pick us up," Tony sighed. "But if he breaks anything again, it's coming out of your check."

While the trio had been arguing around him, Loki and been attempting the feign looking as comfortable as he could with the hammer sitting on his chest, not even allowing him to move it enough to breathe. This was not how his plan had been intended to go, but he supposed being locked in Stark Tower would suffice for now. Suddenly the god's chain of thought was interrupted when the immense pressure was lifted off his chest and air rushed into his lungs. Then his brother grabbed him by the collar of his long, pretentious leather coat and launched them both into the air, landing in the awaiting hover-jet. Tony did the same to Steve, only a lot more gently. When he landed in the jet, he laughed at the fact that Thor had once again pinned his younger brother down with the hammer, having no other means of keeping him contained. This earned him another of Loki's very best menacing glares, to which Tony responded by simply blasting him in the chest again.

"Hey! What have we told you about no ray guns inside?" Clint barked from the cockpit.

"For the last time, it's not a ray gun, it's a-"

"I don't care what it is; I don't want it blowing holes in my plane! It's bad enough we've got him here, you really don't need to antagonize him." Tony wasn't sure if that last part was meant for him or Loki.

When the team arrived back at the Tower, Thor removed the hammer from Loki's chest once again and led him by the scruff of the neck, following Tony down to basement where all of the heavier duty rooms of Stark Tower were located. This required then walking through his lab, which caused Loki to slow his pace so he could get a better look at all the bizarre machinery crowding the place. Unlike Thor, Loki actually found Midgardian science to be of interest, even if it was nothing in comparison to his magic.

Finally, they arrived at a small but heavily fortified room at the far end of Tony's lab. It had extremely thick concrete walls with reinforcing bars made of the same alloy as Cap's shield, which Stark had managed to synthesize more of. The door was also made out the indestructible material, right now to the hinges, and it had a small window set into the top made of the same glass as the cage Loki had tried to kill Thor with 3 years earlier.

Within the cell, the lights were also placed behind this glass, and the only other things it contained were a metal bed and toilet, made of the same indestructible alloy as the door.

"Thor, show our guest how much he's so not escaping," Tony said.

At his words, Thor brought Mjolnir down as hard as could on the steel bed – which really looked more like an operating table – with no effect other than the deafening clang of metal against metal.

"That stuff's in everything in there. I don't think you're gonna be escaping like last time, Reindeer Games."

"Please do not call me that," Loki sighed at the billionaire.

"Don't want stupid nicknames, don't wear stupid hats." Disregarding Loki, he turned Thor and continued, "Stay by the door until I get back and make him get out of that ridiculous getup. I'm gonna go get some normal clothes."

"And why, pray tell, do you want my clothing removed, Stark?"

"Because if I remember correctly, someone I know just loves to hide throwing knives on their person," Tony replied, deciding to think about what on Earth Loki could have possibly been thinking with that last comment later.

When he got back, the god of mischief had obediently stripped down to his black trousers and left the rest of his clothing in a pile on the metal bed. Stark re-entered the cell, tossing a pair of his own pocketless sweatpants and a t-shirt at him before scooping up the heap of metal and leather and handing it to Thor. He'd also brought with him a pillow and big fluffy blanket Loki could use for padding if he decided to sleep at some point. Tony turned around and allowed him to change, not trusting him to have not kept a knife or two in his pants.

"Made sure to bring things I couldn't hide anything in, I see. I guess I don't need this anymore then," Loki said just before one of his tiny little knives whizzed past Stark's head, actually managing to imbed itself in the concrete.

"This is why I can't have nice things," Tony replied sarcastically.

Then from behind him he heard a gasp, and Loki hissed, "You have got to be kidding me!"

Turning, Stark grinned at what he saw. Loki had finished changing pants and had unfolded to shirt, only to notice the design on it. It was made to look like the suit Tony was currently wearing.

"Like it? I picked it out special just to annoy you."

"No force in all the nine realms could get me to wear this revolting piece of trash."

"Aww, come on. I know the manufacturers got the colors a little off, but it's not all that bad."

"Get me something else," Loki demanded.

"Reindeer games, your spoiled prince is showing. It's that or nothing."

As a response, he incinerated the shirt in his hands, and hurled a fire ball at Tony. The smaller man ducked, but he still had his helmet off and the fire ball grazed his gelled hair, causing it to burst into flames.

Tony screamed and ran out of the cell towards his lab, shouting, "Dummie! Now is a good time to use your fire extinguisher! Now I'm actually on fire!"

Loki stood in his cell laughing, his genuine reaction to something funny sounding disconcertingly like an evil cackle. Thor stepped inside from where he's been standing next to the door and said, "You should not have done that, brother. He's going to be complaining about his hair for weeks now."

"Which is precisely why I did it."

Sighing, Thor pulled the knife out of the wall and collected the rest of Loki's Asgardian clothing, and was about to lock the cell behind him when Stark pushed past him back into the cell, covered in fire extinguishing foam and wielding a pair of scissors.

At the initial sight of him, Loki burst into another fit of laughter, until he noticed the pair of scissors in his hands and the glare he was giving the god that was hot enough with rage to melt Jotunheim. The laughter died in his porcelain throat when Tony starting taking slow steps towards him, the scissors raised. He leapt across the last couple of feet and seized the god's chin, and in one swift motion lopped of a large chunk of Loki's hair from the left side of his head. While the rest of his hair remained shoulder length, a tuft of it now only went to just below his ear.

Before he had a chance to react, Stark stormed out of his cell and slammed to door shut, giving Thor a look that told the god of thunder not to say anything. The two of them rode the elevator back up to the top of the tower in silence, leaving Loki in his dungeon, still staring in amazement at the lock of his raven black hair lying on the floor.

After a while his face twisted into one of his signature smirks, and he thought to himself, 'This is going to be loads of fun.'


	2. Remind You of Anyone?

When Thor and Tony arrived back at the top of the tower, the rest of the Avengers were sitting in kitchen, discussing their guest no doubt.  
Before Tony even came in sight, he could hear Steve ask, “Does anyone smell burnt hair?”  
As he rounded the corner Tony replied, “Keep that super nose of yours to yourself, Capsicle. And nobody say a single word.”  
Tony was still covered from head to toe in fire extinguishing foam, and parts of his brown hair were charred black and significantly shorter than they had been when they’d last seen him only a few minutes before.  
Unable to contain himself, Bruce burst into laughter. “What happened to you?” he asked.  
“Let’s just say me and Reindeer Games have different taste in clothing.”  
“He tried to make my brother wear one of his Ironman shirts.”  
“What? I thought it would be funny. No need to ruin my hair…”  
“His reaction was a bit… overzealous. I’m sure JARVIS would be happy to show you the security recordings.”  
“I’ll make the pop corn,” Bruce offered, instantly standing up from his seat and moving to digging around in the cupboard.  
Still too in shock over the loss of his precious hair to even bother having JARVIS delete the tapes, Stark simply announced he was going to his room to shower.  
‘Why do I let him get to me so much?’ he thought to himself as he pulled off his clothes, thankful his Black Sabbath shirt didn’t get singed as well as his hair. That really would have been a tragedy. ‘He’s just a petulant, sarcastic asshole who’ll do or say anything just to get himself a good laugh.’  
‘Remind you of anyone?’ said the little voice in the back of his head, despite his best attempt over the years to squash it out.  
‘Shut up,’ he mentally hissed at himself, ‘at least I don’t go around trying to take over the world and blowing up whole cities.’  
‘Not anymore.’ The little voice replied snarkily. He was even cold and sarcastic to himself.  
This gave him pause, freezing mid-step on his way to into the shower. He stood there for a moment deep in thought before shaking the concept off with a shudder and turning on the water almost as hot as it would go. The high-tech water heater he had designed for Stark Tower didn’t exactly make it a good idea to turn it on full blast.  
As he showered, he thought about what his better half was trying to tell him. Despite having been mostly reformed years ago when he was captured and tortured, he still refused to listen to it most of the time, still having a great love for troublemaking. The only thing that had experience had really changed in him was his willingness to turn and look the other way when what profited him but the innocent in danger. He didn’t have anywhere near the moral compass of Mr. Perfect Soldier, or even Natasha, who had killed for a living without questioning why those he killed needed to die for years before becoming one of the Avengers.  
“That doesn’t mean I’m the same as Loki. He tried to destroy and entire world, and fed ours to those aliens,” he told himself, as if hearing him say it out loud would help him believe it.  
‘Maybe all he needs is the right push,’ his make-shift conscience whispered to him from the back of his head.  
After that, he just stood there under the spray absorbed in thought. What did he really know about the guy? He knew he’d been responsible for some pretty heinous crimes, both here and on Asgard, but from the sound of it, his life there had been hell.  
“Sir, I realize we’re never going to run out of hot water, but you might want to consider sharing it with the rest of Manhattan,” said his other conscience, starling him out of his musings.  
Realizing he’d been in there for almost an hour, Stark quickly washed the ash out of hair and stepped out of the shower. With dread, he turned towards the mirror he had avoided looking at before stepping into the shower. He wiped the fog off of the glass, he let out a noise somewhere between a whimper and a groan. The entire left side of his hair had been burnt short, the ends of his hair blackened and melted together.  
Mourning his hair, he quickly toweled off and pulled on a pair of jeans and a black muscle shirt before stepping back out into the common room all the Avengers shared. He walked over to where Natasha sat on the couch between Clint and Bruce, sighing as he asked, “Tasha, do you know how to cut hair?”  
She stifled a laugh when she looked up at him, seeing the damaging for the first time when it wasn’t covered in foam. “Sure Stark, come into the kitchen where I’ll be able to see.”  
“Great. And you better not give me a buzzcut, soldier girl,” Tony joked as he followed her into the other room.  
“Are you sure you want to miss the movie? It’s amazing!” Steve said from his place on the other side of Bruce.  
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve seen it before,” Natasha replied, glancing at the screen where the new Stark Trek movie was playing.  
“Where’s Thor? Tony asked as the assassin looked around for a pair of scissors.  
“Downstairs, talking to Loki,” she replied, a twinge of hate in her voice.  
“JARVIS, put it on screen,” Tony ordered, one of his transparent screens descending from the ceiling in front of where he sat as Natasha returned with a pair of scissors.  
The feed of the security camera started to play, showing Thor standing in front of the door to Loki’s cell while the god of mischief stood on the other side, his forehead resting on his forearm as he leaned against the glass.  
“I promise you, my coming here means nothing ill for your precious Midgard, these humans you associate with, or that woman you’re so fond of,” Loki said, his voice full of mocking and the self-absorbed air of royalty.  
“Then why did you attack?”  
“I attacked nothing. As I have said, I ensured none of the blasts harmed anything more significant the occasional rodent.”  
“Then what are your plans here?”  
“I do not believe that if I were to tell you, you would be intelligent enough to understand,” Loki hissed, clearly growing bored of the other Asgardian’s presence.  
“Brother, please. I am trying to help you, to trust you. But I cannot if you-“  
“I am not your brother!” Loki screamed, his indifferent expression morphing into one of great pain and resentment. “I was never you brother, I was merely your father’s captive and plaything, made to live if your shadow as you received all the Power, all the glory, and all the love you could ever hope for!”  
Thor flinched at Loki’s words, taking a subconscious step backwards. “Bro—Loki, it did not matter then, and simple knowledge of the truth does not change the fact that it does not matter now. In my heart, we are still and have always been brothers.”  
“What of your oath to slay all of the frost giants? Each and every single one of the monsters like me?”  
At Loki’s words, Star leaned closer to the screen, the information he was gaining for eaves dropping fascinating him. His movement earned him a smack on the shoulder from Natasha, who had not yet finished with his hair.  
“I a foolish child then, without the wisdom I have now. Even after all you have done, I would never wish to slay you. I love you, my brother.”  
Thor’s words clearly affected the sorcerer, try as he might to hide it. A single tear rolling from his brilliant emerald eyes, Loki snapped, “Your sentimental words mean nothing to me. This interrogation is over. Return to your precious Avengers and leave me be.”  
His words sliced through the thunder god’s heart like acid-soaked daggers, and when he turned to leave the camera picked up the look of complete heartbreak written across his face was enough to make even Natasha give a gasp of sympathy. With his brother gone, Loki looked up at the security camera Tony had been watching their conversation through, his tear-filled eyes seeming to lock with Tony’s. Suddenly he snarled like an enraged animal, the green flames of his magic danced in front of the lens, and the feed was cut.  
“That’s not a good sign,” Tony mumbled to himself, his mind and emotions still trying to work through what he had just witnessed.  
“It really isn’t,” Natasha agreed. “You and Banner should figure out a way to inhibit his magic, I don’t like the idea that he could probably escape whenever he wanted.”  
‘So what’s keeping him here?’ Tony wondered as Natasha let him know she was all done.  
Tony turned in his chair to look at his reflection in the stainless steel refrigerator, thinking the spy had done a pretty good job. Of course, he’d never tell her that. “Great, now I’m gonna have to style it every day. Stupid fucking god and his stupid fucking magic…” He cursed as Thor stepped out of the elevator. He and Natasha glanced at each other, silently agreeing not to let him know they’d been spying on him.  
He stalked past them without a glance into the living room – really, it was just all one big open room with different functional areas – and plopped down on the couch next to Steve, the super soldier immediately beginning to try cheering him up. If there was anything to be said of the pair, it was that neither of them could stay upset for long, and soon Thor had a small smile on his face.  
“I’m going down to the lab,” Tony announced, standing and beginning to head towards the elevator Thor had just existed.  
“I’ll keep you company,” Clint offered quickly, rising from his place on the couch.  
“No, you just want to find and excuse to put an arrow in Loki’s brain.”  
“It’s not safe down there alone with him. The guy’s psychotic!”  
“How come Thor’s allowed down there alone and I’m not?”  
“Because he’s not just a squishy human like you, Tony,” Clint sighed, clearly becoming annoyed.  
“I am going to be less than 10 feet away from not one, not two, but three Ironman suits. I think I’ll be ok.” Tony assured him as he sauntered into the elevator and pressed the button for the basement.  
“I swear that man has a death wish,” Clint grumbled as he threw himself back on the couch petulantly.  
The elevator doors dinged open, and Tony immediately glanced in the direction of Loki’s cell. The god was no longer standing by the window, so he was hidden from Tony’s view, but he had no doubt he was aware of his presence. He then looked up at the security camera. There was nothing physically wrong with it, at least not on the outside, so Loki much have done something else to it.  
“JARVIS, run a diagnostics check.”  
“Right away, sir.”  
Tony made his way over to his work station, choosing to heed Natasha’s advice about working on a way to stop Loki from using his magic. It would definitely help once he decided to start being their enemy again. An hour or two passed as Tony looked over the data he had managed to collect from the sensors in Fury’s helicarrier and his own tower from when Loki had used his powers against them three years ago, as well as readings taken today when he’d fried his shirt, his hair, and his camera. The genius was just beginning to narrow down a bizarre energy signature when he suddenly felt the feeling of being watched.  
Glancing over his shoulder, Tony saw that Loki was now leaning against the wall opposite the door, watching him with a bored expression. His eyes were still slightly red.  
“What are you up to, Stark?” the god asked.  
“I could ask you the same question,” Tony laughed, turning back to his screens.  
“Oh come on. It is so boring in here. You don’t want me to get bored, do you? I’m sure you remember what happened the last time…”  
“Are you saying you tried to take over the world because you were bored?”  
“Just answer the question, Stark.”  
Deciding he didn’t really have anything to lose by telling him, Tony shrugged and said, “Try to figure out how to keep you from popping in and out of there whenever you please.”  
Then Tony heard a crackle and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up from the sudden charge floating in the air. “What, like this?” Loki laughed from directly behind him.  
Trying to appear as calm as he could, Tony slowly swiveled the chair he was seated on around to face the god. Loki’s still naked chest was at eye level with the inventor, his pale flesh almost glowing in the lab’s fluorescent light. He had a very muscular body, reminding Tony that his strength didn’t like in his magic alone. Unlike Thor, his physique was more that of an acrobat than a bodybuilder.  
‘I’m staring,’ Tony realized, trying to disguise it but not fooling anyone, especially the trickster.  
“I believe the Midgardian saying is ‘take a picture, it’ll last longer,’” Loki smirked.  
Tony made sure he kept a completely blank expression, and asked, “Can I help you?”  
“I require entertainment.”  
“I’m afraid I can’t help you there. I’m trying to decipher this very limited data. You barely used any magic at all escaping from us. It’s kind of embarrassing.”  
The god was about to voice a no doubt witty response when Tony’s computer beeped and a new window opened, Showing data collected from Loki’s most recent use of his powers. He turned back around and watched as he was shown in slowmo how Loki was slowly consumed by green energy and disappeared, subsequently reappearing behind him. Next to the video was a chart showing various energy and radiation levels during the entire process.  
Loki stared at it, intrigued. He had never actually seen what it looked like when he used his ability to teleport. He got bored again quickly however, and as Tony continued to watch how the power levels fluctuated and compared to the data he had from the one other time Loki has used to power somewhere he could get a reading.  
The god decided that if Stark was going to in investigate his abilities, he would do likewise, and walked over to where one of his suits was standing.  
“Don’t touch that, Reindeer Games,” Tony warned, surprising Loki, who had thought his entire focus was on his data when in fact he seemed he was giving a great deal of it to the god.  
Not one to be given commands, especially from a mortal, Loki huffed and reached out to the suit, plucking off the helmet. When it detached Stark heard the sound of metal ripping and sparks flying, and immediately rushed over.  
“God damnit, Reindeer Games, what did I just say?” he shouted at the bratty god, who was staring inside the helmet at the deactivated HUD and loose wires sticking out of where it had been attached to the rest of the suit.  
“Maybe if you would stop insulting me I would be more likely to comply,” he said, without looking away from the fascinating piece of machinery.  
“Fine. Oh’ mighty Loki, great and might god of being a fucking annoying prat, please don’t break my stuff.”  
“We’ll have to work on that,” Loki said, handing the helmet to Stark, who grimaced looking at the damage he’d done to his baby.  
“Now I’m going to have to fix this. Thanks a lot,” he sighed, picking up a soldering iron and stepping up onto a stool.  
Watching Stark perform his repairs kept Loki entertained for the next hour, until they heard the elevator doors slide open.  
“Tony, Steve’s making dinner, he sent me to ask if you—“ Clint started before seeing Loki seemingly looming behind the genius, instantly drawing his gun and taking off the safety.  
“Cool it, Legolas. He’s just watching me fix the suit he broke,” Tony said, giving Loki a glare over his shoulder at ‘he.’  
“And what was he doing out of his cell that he could break it in the first place?”  
“I got bored.” “He teleported.” They said simultaneously, causing Clint to narrow his eyes in suspicion.  
“And you didn’t warn us?”  
“He wasn’t causing any trouble. Well,” Tony glanced at the suit, “much trouble.”  
Clint sighed and flipped the safety back on before reholstering his gun. “Well stuff him back in there. Dinner’s ready.”  
Suddenly a hilarious – and bad – idea flickered through Tony’s mind. He turned to Loki and said, “You must be starving. How’d you like to come up for dinner?”  
Clint tried to object, but Loki beat him to the chase. “I’d love to,” he grinned, reveling at the chance to make the rest of the Avengers uncomfortable.  
“Tony you can’t be serious,” Clint objected.  
“Come one, Clint. It’ll be fine. He can’t possibly be stupid enough to try and attack all six of us at once.”  
This comment earned Tony a scoff from Loki and a glare from Clint.  
“Fine,” Clint sighed, realizing there was no way he was going to change Stark’s mind now. “But if he kills us all, I’m telling Fury it was your idea.”  
When the three arrived back at the top up the tower, everyone froze, staring at Loki with various expressions of shock, horror, and hatred.  
Tony took this in stride, saying, “Steve, hope you cooked enough for one more. We have a guest.”


End file.
